GNU a2ps, version 4.12

General Purpose PostScript Generating Utility

Edition 4.12, 4 March 1999

GNU a2ps is a filter which generates PostScript from various formats, with pretty-printing features, strong support for many alphabets, and customizable layout.

This is Edition 4.12 of the a2ps documentation, updated 4 March 1999.

• 1 Introduction
  • 1.1 Description
  • 1.2 Version Numbering Scheme
  • 1.3 Reporting Bugs
  • 1.4 a2ps Mailing List
  • 1.5 Helping the Development
• 2 User's Guide
  • 2.1 Purpose
  • 2.2 How to print
    • 2.2.1 Basics for Printing
    • 2.2.2 Special Printers
    • 2.2.3 Using Delegations
    • 2.2.4 More Tricky Uses
    • 2.2.5 Checking the Defaults
  • 2.3 Important parameters
  • 2.4 Localizing
  • 2.5 Interfacing with Other Programs
    • 2.5.1 Interfacing With a Mailer
    • 2.5.2 Netscape
• 3 Invoking a2ps
  • 3.1 Command line options
    • 3.1.1 Tasks Options
    • 3.1.2 Global Options
    • 3.1.3 Sheet Options
    • 3.1.4 Page Options
    • 3.1.5 Headings Options
    • 3.1.6 Input Options
    • 3.1.7 Pretty Printing Options
    • 3.1.8 Output Options
    • 3.1.9 PostScript Options
  • 3.2 Escapes
    • 3.2.1 Use of Escapes
    • 3.2.2 General Structure of the Escapes
    • 3.2.3 Available Escapes
  • 3.3 Exit status
• 4 Configuration Files
  • 4.1 Including Configuration Files
  • 4.2 Your Library Path
  • 4.3 Your Default Options
  • 4.4 Your Media
  • 4.5 Your Printers
  • 4.6 Your Shortcuts
  • 4.7 Your PostScript magic number
  • 4.8 Your Page Labels
  • 4.9 Your Variables
    • 4.9.1 Defining Variables
    • 4.9.2 Predefined Variables
  • 4.10 Your Delegations
    • 4.10.1 Defining a Delegation
    • 4.10.2 Guide Line for Delegations
    • 4.10.3 Predefined Delegations
  • 4.11 Your Internal Details
• 5 Library Files
  • 5.1 Documentation Format
  • 5.2 Map Files
  • 5.3 Font Files
    • 5.3.1 Fonts Map File
    • 5.3.2 Fonts Description Files
    • 5.3.3 Adding More Font Support
  • 5.4 Style Sheet Files
• 6 Encodings
  • 6.1 What is an Encoding
  • 6.2 Encoding Files
    • 6.2.1 Encoding Map File
    • 6.2.2 Encoding Description Files
    • 6.2.3 Some Encodings
• 7 Pretty Printing
  • 7.1 Syntactic limits
  • 7.2 Known Style Sheets
  • 7.3 Type Setting Style Sheets
    • 7.3.1 Symbol
    • 7.3.2 PreScript
      • 7.3.2.1 Syntax
      • 7.3.2.2 PreScript Commands
      • 7.3.2.3 Examples
    • 7.3.3 PreTeX
      • 7.3.3.1 Special characters
      • 7.3.3.2 PreTeX Commands
      • 7.3.3.3 Differences with LaTeX
    • 7.3.4 TeXScript
  • 7.4 Faces
  • 7.5 Style Sheets Semantics
    • 7.5.1 Name and key
    • 7.5.2 Comments
    • 7.5.3 Alphabets
    • 7.5.4 Case sensitivity
    • 7.5.5 P-Rules
    • 7.5.6 Sequences
    • 7.5.7 Optional entries
  • 7.6 Style Sheets Implementation
    • 7.6.1 A Bit of Syntax
    • 7.6.2 Style Sheet Header
    • 7.6.3 Syntax of the Words
    • 7.6.4 Inheriting from Other Style Sheets
    • 7.6.5 Syntax for the P-Rules
    • 7.6.6 Declaring the keywords and the operators
    • 7.6.7 Declaring the sequences
    • 7.6.8 Checking a Style Sheet
  • 7.7 A Tutorial on Style Sheets
    • 7.7.1 Example and syntax
    • 7.7.2 Implementation
    • 7.7.3 The Entry in `sheets.map'
    • 7.7.4 More Sophisticated Rules
    • 7.7.5 Guideline for Distributed Style Sheets
• 8 PostScript
  • 8.1 Foreword: Good and Bad PostScript
  • 8.2 Page Device Options
  • 8.3 Statusdict Options
  • 8.4 Colors in PostScript
  • 8.5 a2ps PostScript Files
  • 8.6 Designing PostScript Prologues
    • 8.6.1 Definition of the faces
    • 8.6.2 Prologue File Format
    • 8.6.3 A step by step example
• 9 Contributions
  • 9.1 a2ps Emacs mode
  • 9.2 card
    • 9.2.1 Invoking card
    • 9.2.2 Caution when Using card
  • 9.3 fixps
    • 9.3.1 Invoking fixps
  • 9.4 fixnt
    • 9.4.1 Invoking fixnt
  • 9.5 pdiff
    • 9.5.1 Invoking pdiff
  • 9.6 psmandup
    • 9.6.1 Invoking psmandup
  • 9.7 psset
    • 9.7.1 Invoking psset
• 10 Frequently asked questions
  • 10.1 Why Does ...?
    • 10.1.1 Relocation Error
    • 10.1.2 Printer Errors
    • 10.1.3 Cannot Print in Duplex
    • 10.1.4 Why Does it Print Out of the Paper?
    • 10.1.5 Why Does it Print Junk?
    • 10.1.6 Why Does it Say my File is Binary?
    • 10.1.7 Why Does it Refuse to Change the Font Size
  • 10.2 How Can I ...?
    • 10.2.1 How Can I Leave Room for Binding?
    • 10.2.2 How Can I Print stdin?
    • 10.2.3 How Can I Change the Font?
    • 10.2.4 How Can I Simulate the Old Option `-b'?
    • 10.2.5 How Can I Print on Non PostScript Printers?
    • 10.2.6 How Can I Print Man Pages with Underlines
  • 10.3 Please tell me...
    • 10.3.1 Is a2ps Y2K compliant?
    • 10.3.2 Why Have the Options Changed?
    • 10.3.3 Why not having used yacc and such
• A Glossary
• B Genesis
  • 10.4 History
  • 10.5 Contributors
  • 10.6 Translators
  • 10.7 Thanks
• C Copying
• Concept Index